Damn it! Whatever it is to the north is driving me absolutely insane! It's like listening to an infant cry and not being able to do anything about it. Maxine grumbled angrily under her breath as she frantically searched for Horatio Quay. He hadn't been where she had last seen him. She had nearly given up when she finally spotted him. However before she could say anything to him, he rushed up to her and felt her forehead.

"Are you alright?" Horatio Quay asked with deep concern as he looked at her eyes, "You're sweating and your heart is beating far too swiftly."

"I'm fine. I'm just stressed," Maxine replied.

"You were not anywhere near this stressed when you were injured," Horatio Quay stated, "What's bothering you?"

"I don't know!" Maxine yelled, "All I know is the source of it is to the north and it's outside the range of my spiritual sense." Horatio Quay turned his head slightly to the north just as Maxine finished speaking.

"It's nothing you need to worry yourself about. Just focus on remaining calm," Horatio Quay said very firmly, "I will go deal with it in a few moments. Now is there anything else that you need from me before I go?" So there is something to the north and he doesn't want me to know what it is.

"Yeah, I was wondering why you told me not to advance to gold stage," Maxine stated while trying to remain calm.

"Oh, I never mentioned why, did I? It's easy enough to answer," Horatio Quay said calmly, "It's because that's how long I estimated that it would take for you to gain control over your bloodline. It would be suicide to face the lightning tribulation with an untamed bloodline."

"A what?!" Maxine exclaimed.

"You've never heard of the lightning tribulation? What has Guan been teaching you?" Horatio Quay asked in confusion.

"Alchemy," Maxine answered with a straight face, "And not much else."

"I should've known," Horatio Quay complained as he ran his hand over his face, "For starters, an event takes place when you breakthrough to gold stage. It's a test of both your body and strength of will. If you fail one of them, you fail both and you will die if that happens. Not even your father can change that." Well, shit. I guess those cultivation novels have something right afterall.

"I understand the physical part. What's the strength of will?" Maxine asked, "Does it have something to do with the amount of pain I can tolerate or something?"

"I can't say," Horatio Quay answered, "Everyone's will is tested in different ways, but I have no doubt that you will successfully pass it once your bloodline has been tamed. Oh and one more thing. Your test will be harder due to the fact that you have multiple cores and a powerful body. But not as bad as it should be since your battle form appears to be rather weak considering your bloodline."

"What do you mean by that?" Maxine asked angrily. Shit, that damn feeling is still bothering the hell out of me.

"There's no need to be hostile. I'm just making an observation based on the increase in physical abilities that the teachers at the academy demonstrate when they transform," Horatio Quay answered calmly, "Before you ask, I have no idea why."

"That figures and I'm sorry for being hostile. It's just that thing to the north is REALLY bothering me," Maxine admitted.

"It's fine. I understand why it would bother you considering how strong your maternal instincts are," Horatio Quay said in an understanding tone. Wait, did he imply what I think he just did? Is there a really kid being tormented to the north?! But, I shouldn't be able sense it. Unless... it's an infant hydra. Is someone torturing an infant hydra?! Those mother fuckers!

"So, when are you going to deal with it?" Maxine asked with obvious urgency.

"I will go right this moment, if you don't have any other questions," Horatio Quay answered.

"I don't," Maxine said, "Now please go take care of it."

"I'll be right back," Horatio Quay said, "And don't under any circumstances leave the base camp until I return." Maxine tilted her head slightly in confusion before Horatio Quay vanished.

However, she whipped her head to the north in sudden alarm. She could've sworn her heard a small child cry out for help, but the scream also sounded like it had a slight serpentine hiss. What the fuck is going on?! There are no children in the base camp and it's obvious no one else heard it either. Wait a second, where is everyone?

Maxine looked around and didn't see a single person within five hundred feet of her. Oh, shit! She immediately sprinted forward as she transformed into her battleform and narrowly avoided six peak gold stage cultivators pouncing on her. Unfortunately, they were not the only ones after her. She had only run a few dozen feet before a net appeared three feet infront of her and considering how fast she was going, it was too close for her to dodge it. If I can't dodge, I will cut through it!

Maxine slashed her claws at the net while lining her claws with blade energy. They cut through it almost as if it wasn't even there and she ran between the two pieces of it. Unforuntately she realized too late the net was just a distraction to allow two of the peak gold stage cultivators to get close to her enough to her to slam their fists into her gut. She screamed in pain when the shockwave of their attacks reached her still healing kidney. The force of their combined attack threw backwards into the arms of six peak gold stage cultivators. Fuck! I should've seen that coming! They wasted no time in moving to restrain her.

She tried get away from them before they could lock down her limbs, but she failed. They moved too quickly and were moving perfectly in sync with each other. Which resulted in her arms and legs being restrained in moments, but they weren't able to restrain her tail before she was able to slap a few of them around with it.

She bucked and kicked for all she was worth, but she couldn't free herself. She opened her mouth to spray acid at the ones to her left, but as soon as she began to open her mouth, one of them threw an orb at her face. It exploded on impact with the lower half of her face and formed a paste of some kind that immediately hardened. Thankfully, it hadn't blocked her nose off so she could still breathe. Shit, these guys are way too prepared. They know about nearly all of my abilities. Shit, Horatio Quay warned me that shit like this might happen. Although, I doubt they know about one of my more recent discoveries.

"Quickly, put the manacles on her," one of them said, "Our lure won't keep her master occupied for long."

However before they could do anything to her, an arrow slammed into that man's side and Maxine heard Jason Markham roaring, "Get your fucking hands off of her!" More arrows followed, but they were easily deflected away. The one he injured threw out a wave of force that blasted Jason Markham into the rest of the mercenaries from Patricks group that were rushing to her aid. They blown away like leaves in the wind.

Still, they caused enough of a distraction for Maxine to free one of her hands and claw one of her wouldbe captors across the face before they could restrain her arm again. She got punched in the gut for her efforts and yelped in pain since it jarred her injured kidney again.

In seconds, manacles were attached on her wrists, ankles and several places along the length of her tail, but oddly she didn't see any chains connecting them. However when they let go of her, she used this opportunity to escape, but she was only able to take a step before her manacled limbs flew behind her. The manacles painfully slammed into a circular object behind her. She tried to struggle against it, but she couldn't get enough leverage to free herself.

She felt herself being lifted off the ground and looked around wildly to see seven peak gold stage experts hauling their own 'Maxine' away using a heavy rope. With a sudden jerk, she was being dragged through the air at terrifying speeds.

She used her spiritual sense to look at the device restraining her and attempted to disengage it using her energies. To her shock and horror, she couldn't use her energies. She couldn't even use the essence from her constructs. Fuck, I guess I will have to do that and I can't use it on the machine. My tail is in the way and I don't think that I can launch my quills with enough force to pierce through my tail.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She angled her head to present her quills in the direction of her captor. God, I hate having to resort to using this move. But it's either getting taken somewhere to have god knows what done to me or having a bald spot on my head until my hair grows back. I'm only going to get away with using this move one time before my captor knocks me out, so I hope Horatio Quay is paying attention.

Maxine clenched her teeth in reluctance and twitched a set of muscles in the back of her head that she didn't know she had two weeks ago. Six quills launched out of the back of her head. Four of which were headed for her captor's head and the other two for the hand that was holding onto a rope that was attached to the device restraining her.

Her quills hit his hand first, but instead of dropping her like she expected, his grip tightened as her quills lodged deeply into his hand. With practiced grace, he turned around and swatted the remaining quills out of the air. She saw the fury in his eyes as he glared at her, but he didn't move to against her. Instead, his eyes widened in surprise before he hacked his own hand with the quills sticking out of it and grabbed the rope with his other hand.

"No one told me your quills could be fired like that or that they were laced with such deadly venom," the man complained as he continued to drag her through the air, but he didn't get far before Horatio Quay appeared beside him, "Fuck." He dropped Maxine as vanished just before Horatio Quay's blade could cleave him in two. However in that one instant that Horatio Quay unleashed his attack, Maxine felt his overwhelming cultivation. Due to the difference in strength between them, she couldn't even make a guess at his cultivation level.

"I thought I told you to stay in the base camp," Horatio Quay said as Maxine felt herself hurtling towards the horizon due to the momentum she had built up while being dragged through the air. He still managed to keep up with her and she glared at him before she saw a series of flashes. She immediately felt her energies return to her and rapidly arrested her forward momentum. Without skipping a beat, she angrily tore the hardened paste off of her face and unfortunately it took some skine and scales with it. FUCK! That hurts!

"There were eight peak gold stage cultivators What did you expect to happen?" Maxine roared at Horatio Quay in anger, but she saw a smile slowly forming on his lips, "You asshole!" He knew I would be ambushed!

"There were twelve of them and I expected you to last a little longer before they could capture you," Horatio Quay answered with a straight face, "But their preparations were far more thorough than I had ancipated, but they didn't seem to be aware that your quills could be thrown like that." Maxine was about to yell at Horatio Quay more, but stopped herself when she noticed that the strange sensation bothering her was gone.

"What was to the north?" Maxine asked to change the subject. However just as she finished speaking, she heard a faint whimper coming from behind Horatio Quay and saw a pale green tail hanging between his legs. And she finally noticed the harness that Horatio Quay was wearing as he gave her a complicated look.

She flew around him and saw a small pale green, naked and unconscious beastkin boy with heavy bruising all over his body strapped to Horatio Quay's back. He looked no older than eleven. What the hell?! What species is he? I know he's a type of dragon just based on the shape of his scales, but what specifically, I have no idea. I don't see any horns. That limits what he could be, but figuring out what he is doesn't matter right now. He's hurt!

"We need to take him back to the base camp. I can't treat him here," Maxine announced.

"Are you sure about taking him back to the base camp?" Horatio Quay asked.

"Yes, why?" Maxine asked in return, "Wait. Do you know what he is?"

"He's a hydra," Horatio Quay said.

"But there are no hydra beastkin," Maxine said reflexively.

"That's because whoever arranged this forced him into this form through alchemy," Horatio Quay growled.

"Those bastards," Maxine growled in rage. She had heard about such a potion and with one exception, it always resulted in death within a couple months of consumption. But she was also confused. The potion shouldn't have even worked on a hydra since it acted much like a poison.

"Calm down," Horatio Quay said, "We will worry about that later. This little one needs medical attention."

"You're right," Maxine complained angrily and quickly took the hydrakin boy out of the harness. Once he was in her arms, she surrounded herself in an orb of her energies and created an identical orb back at the base camp before teleporting herself to it.

Maxine completely ignored the surprised reactions of everyone around her as she gently placed the hydrakin boy on the ground and covered him with one of her shirts before using her spiritual sense to examine his injuries. He had extensive bruising and several simple fractures, but none of it was life threatening. However, his immune system wasn't functioning the way it was supposed to. Instead of attacking bacteria and other harmful microbes, it was attacking healthy cells and to make matters worse, it was doing so in an extremely aggressive fashion. She could only deduce this was caused by his forced metamorphisis. His rapid regeneration was slowing the process, but if nothing was done, he would die within 3 months at the latest. Those bastards can go to hell! Don't they know there is no cure for an auto-immune disease that appears in a cultivator! No, I need to remain calm. The first thing I need to do is treat his current injuries and I will try to think of a way to cure his illness later. Perhaps daddy can think of a way to cure him. Anyways, time to heal this little guy. I think he can eat a purple snake fruit without any ill effect. I don't dare give him one of my specialized healing potions. Those things are meant for cultivators that are at least silver stage.

She quickly retrieved a purple snake fruit and created a small knife using her energies. She cut it up into small bite sized pieces and looked back to the hydrakin boy. Unfortunately, he was still unconscious. Thus, she opened his mouth slightly and squeezed a few drops of the snake skin fruit into his mouth. The result was immediate as the hydrakin boy's external wounds healed slightly and after a few seconds, he awoke.

Maxine smiled and brought a piece of the purple snake fruit to his lips. He savagely bit down on it and nearly got Maxine's fingers in the process. Woah, that was close. I guess he's still feral. Someone will need to teach him how to behave later. She continued to feed him the rest of the purple snake fruit with a bit more caution. After he finished eating it, his wounds had visibly improved, but he still wasn't in any shape to move around. He seemed to be of the same mind as he laid there motionless while staring at her.

She stroked his short black hair to soothe him and it was clearly working since he started to drift off to sleep within moments. When he was finally asleep, she took stock of her surroundings and found that Patrick's people were keeping everyone ten feet away.

"How is the little guy?" Meagan asked with concern as she walked closer to Maxine. She's just like she was in the previous timeline. No matter what kind of grudge she has, she will ignore it when children are involved. Although, I didn't think it included beastkin children.

"His injuries will take some time to heal," Maxine answered.

"And what about you?" Jason Markham asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder, "Those pricks were not gentle with you when they took you captive."

"I've got sore shoulders, some skin abrasions and a few bruises. But it's nothing I can't heal from," Maxine replied, "I'm more concerned about this little guy. His current form isn't natural. The potion they used to force this form on him is killing him and I don't know how to stop it. The most I can do right now is to make sure he's comfortable."

"Who would do that to him?" Meagan asked angrily.

"I don't know for certain, but I intend to find out," Maxine declared as she checked over the hydrakin boy again with her spiritual sense, but this time she wasn't looking for injuries. Instead, she was looking for any evidence of who captured and tortured him. Unfortunately, even after scanning him down to his very genetic code, she couldn't find a single thing. It was a long shot, but I had to check. I was hoping the alchemist's pride in his or her work might compel them to leave a mark of some kind.

"Alright. Let me know if you need help punishing those pricks," Jason Markham said firmly and pointed off to the side as he continued, "Anyways, we have a tent set up for you two over there."

"Thanks," Maxine said as she gently picked up the hydrakin boy in her arms and carried him to the tent. She gently laid him down on a small cot and covered him with one of the provided sheets. I need to find him something to wear. He can't run around naked.

"I interrogated a few of your would-be kidnappers," Horatio Quay said as he walked into the tent, "They didn't know much. Only one of them gave me something we can work with. An insignia that their employer wore." He promptly handed Maxine a sheet of paper.

She saw two crescent moons facing away from each other with three lines connecting their backs together at the top, bottom and middle. This isn't a coat of arms. It's an alchemist's sigil! I just need to look up this mark in the Alchemist Association's database.

"I'll find out who sent them after we get back to the academy," Maxine said. But I better not move right away. I can't compltely rule out that someone is setting this guy up. I managed to get this piece of information far too easily for it to be believed. Especially considering how thorough they were in the attempt to kidnap me.

"Good. I'll be waiting nearby in case they make another attempt and if they do, try to last longer," Horatio Quay said and he frowned for a moment as she felt his spiritual sense scan the area, "I'll be waiting just outside." He walked out of the tent, but Maxine still felt his spiritual sense sweeping past her repeatedly. Something has him on edge. That does not bode well. No point in worrying about it. I can always open a portal and leave with this hydrakin boy if it looks like he can't handle it.

Maxine looked back at the sleeping hydrakin boy and checked him over again with her spiritual sense. However something was different from before, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She scanned him more carefully and it finally hit her. His auto-immune disease isn't as aggressive as it was before! At this rate, he will last more than six months and he seems to be constantly improving. This is amazing! But what triggered this change?

However before Maxine can contemplate that question, she feels a large, heavily callused hand rest on her shoulder and sees another such hand grasped the hydrakin boy's wrist. "I'm sorry," a man with a very deep man's voice said before she felt his spiritual sense jolt her mind as she lost consciousness.